The Longest Ride is the latest film basedupon thework of acclaimed writer Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, SafeHaven,The Best of Me). It is based on Sparks bestselling novel. Withdirectionby George Tillman Jr. (Faster). Starring Britt Robertson, ScottEastwood,Oona Chaplin, and Alan Alda, The Longest Ride was produced byMartyBowen, Wyck Godfrey, Theresa Park, and Nicholas Sparks.

The story focuses on two couples journeys as theyfall in love:one told in the present and one through flashbacks. The first couple ofthestory is that of Sophia (Britt Robertson) and Luke (Scott Eastwood).Sophia isa college student trying to get into a prestigious art job: she is amassivelover of the arts...Read the entire review

Brisk pacing, teamwork, and the gray-area motivations of antagonists are some of the big benchmarks of Bryan Singer's first two X-Men films, the first of which recently celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of its theatrical debut. These strengths commanded enough attention to begin the revival of the comic-book subgenre into the thriving pop-culture machine it's become, for better and for worse, so it naturally came as a blow when Singer pulled out the third installment, the now much-maligned X-Men: The Last Stand, in pursuit of ... well, Read the entire review
]]> The Strain: The Complete First Season - Premium Edition (Blu-ray)Blu-rayhttp://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=69170
Wed, 01 Jul 2015 03:09:30 PDTRecommended

One of the common questions DVD and Blu-ray critics see beneath their reviews in comment sections is, "Why didn't you give this to someone who'd enjoy it?" First of all, giving everyone the titles they already know they were going to enjoy would result in a site that was nothing but positive reviews. Plus, in the case of DVDTalk, reviewers pick their own work, and doing so gives one the freedom to pick things they're on the fence about, something that might turn out to be a wonderful surprise.

Sadly (and if you choose to skip down to the other sections, I'll understand), "The Strain" was not the surprise I was hoping for. Executive produced by horror filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, based on their trilogy of novels, it follows the release of what looks like a virus in New York City. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), head of a specialized arm of the CDC, is sent in to investigate an ...Read the entire review

As scientific research furthers our understanding of the secrets behind the way things work, so too does it provide fodder for science-fiction to explore current impossibilities in more credible -- or, at least, more informed -- ways. That even trickles down to schlocky indie flicks like The Lazarus Effect, an update on the theme of botched human resurrection popularized by the likes of Mary Shelley and H.P. Lovecraft. In the case of this biological horror-thriller from David Gelb, the director of the wonderful documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi of all things, updated scientific gibberish leads into fairly interesting moral grounds as a group of med students...Read the entire review
]]> Kingsman: Secret Service (Blu-ray)Blu-rayhttp://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=68392
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 18:05:18 PDTHighly Recommended

The Movie: It does seem that spy movies have gotten a bit dour recently. They desperately needed the proverbial kick in the pants, to get recharged and made fun again. At least, that's the opinion of Matthew Vaughn, who previously brought us Kick Ass and X-Men First Class. And to solve this dilemma of over seriousness, he decided to make Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Harry Hart, a/k/a Galahad (Colin Firth) is a consummate gentleman and an agent for the independent intelligence agency The Kingsmen, drawn from England's upper crust. He feels bad that a man dies saving his life, and so when the man's son Eggsy (Taron Egerton) grows up to be somewhat troubled and froward, Hart offers him a chance to join the elite team. Eggsy agrees, since it'...Read the entire review

Although its six-season run has concluded, White Collar remains a highly entertaining and re-watchable property. The show took the backseat to USA Network's contemporaneous hit "Burn Notice," but White Collar has more lasting appeal. Star Matt Bomer is highly enjoyable in the role of Neal Caffrey, a master forger who begins working for the FBI to avoid returning to prison after a jailbreak. This non-police procedural crackles with wit and interesting diversions into white-collar crime. Most episodes present independent investigations, but character-arc progressions and some bigger conflicts carry over throughout the seasons. The fun here is in wa...Read the entire review

I feel like any time that a filmmaker wants to tackle big picture topics in American society like class, or wealth, or race, there has to be a strong confidence in the source material to do it. And quietly, I think that some of that confidence shows when it comes to the film Black or White. But if so, I'm truly left wondering what, or where, it is.

The film is written and directed by Mike Binder, and reunites him with Kevin Costner, who starred in the Binder film The Upside of Anger. Costner is Elliot, a grandfather who is raising her granddaughter Eloise with his wife (his daughter had died previously) and now Elliot's lost his wife, and finds himself alone. But not completely, as Eloise's grandmother Rowena (Octavia Spencer, Ge...Read the entire review

Even though they belong in different genres, the Taken and Hangover franchises actually have a lot in common. Their first films were perfectly fine genre flicks: nothing revolutionary but fun and entertaining enough to stand on their own. Of course, since they made a lot of money, sequels were inevitable, regardless of whether or not their stories needed to be expanded. One of the charms of the first Hangover was in the way it fully embraced a premise so outlandish, the fact that it was even executed into a major feature film was part of the joke.

I reviewed The Woman in Black in 2012 and recommended it to you fine readers. That film revived long-dormant Hammer Film Productions, and is an atmospheric, spooky nod to haunted-house horror films from the 1960s. When I heard they were making a sequel, my first thought was that the story had already been resolved. That is the biggest problem The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death faces. Harry Potter already appeased the titular spook, so why the hell is she back? I appreciate the practical set pieces and misty cinematography here, but the film fails to make a compelling case for reviving its antagonist.

]]> Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Final Season (Blu-ray)Blu-rayhttp://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=67322
Fri, 13 Mar 2015 09:57:53 PDTRent It

Content: I've been a supporter of Kurt Sutter for years, I loved his work on The Shield and I vehemently believe he wrote some of the series best episodes. I thought his work with the first 4 seasons of SOA was incredible, and truly felt it was one of the better shows on television. Since then, however, the series has steadily been dropping in quality to "guilty pleasure" levels. To put it bluntly, the Sons final ride takes a total nosedive in its final season, reaching Dexter levels of disappointments, with the same amount of filler, boring subplots and a tedious main story.

Please be aware that there will be spoilers for past seasons, especially the biggest moment of the entire series. If you're not caught up, turn back now.

Major spoilers for the previous season!

It seems like every major television always has that one death where you exclaim "Holy ****!", and ar...Read the entire review

Content: It seems that one of the most controversial topics to tackle in any form of the medium is that of something that takes place in the Middle East, especially when said show arrives at a time when unrest in the Middle East is still making headlines, so Tyrant was understandably controversial when it debuted in the US, dividing the audience directly down the middle. Political thrillers have never been my bag, so to speak, However, FX is easily one of my favorite television networks of all time. FX has been the home of my favorite television series ever, The Shield, several of my current favorites like Justified, The Americans, Fargo, and Archer, and a multitude of several other good-great shows. The point is that FX rarely lets me down when it comes to television.

Tyrant was created by acclaimed show-runner Gideon Raff. I'd assume that most of the world recognize...Read the entire review

Robert Vince's Russell Madness (2015) insists that "The Strongest Tag Team is Family", and....nope, I'm gonna go with The Road Warriors. This lukewarm attempt at adapting the world of pro wrestling into lightweight, dog-centric family entertainment is a total misfire from start to finish, never approaching even the modest heights of what the prestigious Read the entire review

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The Best of Me (Blu-ray)Blu-rayhttp://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=66893
Sat, 14 Feb 2015 10:23:19 PSTRent It

Content: Based on the bestselling novel by acclaimed author Nicholas Sparks, who is probably best known for the blockbuster love story, The Notebook, The Best of Me tells the story of Dawson and Amanda, a modern day Romeo and Juliet, and two former high school sweethearts who were ripped from one another after an unfortunate twist of fate. The two must confront one another when they return to their small town for the funeral of a beloved friend, and find themselves reunited after 21 years apart. Their bittersweet reunion reignites the love they've never forgotten, but soon discover the forces that drove them apart twenty one years ago still live on.

The story starts out in present day on an oil rig where we meet Dawson (James Marsden), a middle aged man who doesn't seem to happy with his place in life. While reading a book on the job one day, a freak accident occurs where an...Read the entire review

Content: Based off the Danish-Swedish series of the same name, Meredith Stiehm, best known for Homeland and Cold Case, and Elwood Reid, best known for his work on Cold Case and Hawaii Five-0, remade The Bridge for American audiences. For those who don't know what The Bridge is about, I'll fill you in. The title of the series is in reference to the Bridge of the Americas that serves as a border crossing between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. The series follows two detectives, 1 from the US, and 1 from Mexico, who come together to help each other solve cases. At the end of its first season, Stiehm left the show to return to Homeland, leaving Reid on his own. This marked the beginning of the end for The Bridge, as it was cancelled due to unsatisfactory ratings (which scares me for The Americans since their ratings are even lower.)...Read the entire review

As the holiday video gifts of December transition into January, we get the occasional underrated film before February's release of films aspiring for any award possible. And with The Drop, we experience a film that came and went perhaps a little too quickly, also was perhaps noted for something out of its control. Yet on its merits, the film deserves a place in (or just outside of) critics' lists for best films of 2014.

Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone) adapted his short story into a screenplay that Micha l Roskam directed in his follow-up to Bullhead. Bob (Tom Hardy, Locke) tends bar in Brooklyn with and for the bar's namesake, Cousin Marv (James Gandolfini, Read the entire review

I quite enjoyed The Bridge during its first season in its retelling of a Scandanavian show focused on the United States-Mexico border. Then a funny thing happened between Seasons One and Two, where Meredith Stiehm returned to take the creative reins over Homeland, which left co-show runner and collaborator Elwood Reid on his own, facing a second season which made it a longer-running adaptation than its Danish-Swedish forefather. So what are the results?

The core of the show still remained fortunately. Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger, The Host) is still working in El Paso and is still being cared for to some degree by Hank (Ted Levine, Read the entire review

Jerks need love too. In a nutshell, that is what the FX network's snarky new romantic sitcom You're The Worst is telling us. Created by Weeds writer Stephen Falk, the show poses the question, can two misanthropic, unromantic, commitment-phobic people be together in a relationship and make it work?

]]> Back In The Game: The Complete First SeasonDVD Videohttp://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=67368
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 14:01:30 PSTRecommended

Entertaining sitcom rehash, with Jimmy Caan in rare form. 20th Century-Fox has released Back in the Game: The Complete First Season, a quixotically-titled two (burned) disc, 13-episode collection of the only "season" of this fast-cancelled 2013 ABC sitcom. Co-starring Maggie Lawson, Griffin Gluck, Ben Koldyke, Lenora Crichlow, J.J. Totah, Brandon Selgado-Telis, and Cooper Roth, Back in the Gameseemed like a solid triple when I watched its first episode back in the fall of 2013, but ABC didn't give it time to build, and it was rather quickly axed. Too bad for the hilarious Caan...although maybe it was just as well, once you see where they were going with this Bad News Bears Meets Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore hybrid. No extras for these excellent anamorphically-enhanced widescreen transfers.

There was a charm to Raising Hopewhen it first aired, and it tended to retain some of that charm in the form of jabs at the network broadcasting it (Fox) when I came back to it in Season Three, but there seemed to be some writing on the wall for the show as it came to its fourth season, which I will get to in a second.

The show's creator, Greg Garcia had been responsible for in Season Three and other shows before developing Raising Hope, but I presume he felt the demands of Hope taking a toll on him, and he decided to develop Read the entire review

Perfect family entertainment for young and old...and that's next-to-impossible to come by these days. 20th Century-Fox, introducing a new releasing line called the TV Archives (a potential gold mine for lovers of vintage TV, don't you think?), is inaugurated with Daniel Boone - The Complete Series: The Fiftieth Anniversary, a 6-volume, 36-disc, 165-episode collection of the beloved NBC action/adventure series starring Fess Parker, Patricia Blair (pretty and bland), Ed Ames (lots of fun with his English colloquialisms and smirky reaction shots), Darby Hinton (all-American kid), Veronica Cartwright (excellent here--what a shame Blair got her fired), Albert Salmi (superfluous once Ames took the sidekick slot), Jimmy Dean (amiable, as usual), Dallas McKennon (funny old coot), and Rosey Grier (who was going to tell him he was trying too hard?). Daniel Boone proved a sizeabl...Read the entire review

Along with Paul Thomas Anderson, Alexander Payne is another director whom I am thankful to see his new work come more frequently than it did in the previous decade. We have experienced The Descendants and Nebraska in recent years, but one would be surprised to learn that Sideways turns 10 this year, hence the reason for this review.

Payne and Jim Taylor (Payne's writing partner from Election) adapted the Rex Pickett novel into a screenplay. The film follows Miles (Paul Giamatti, Saving Mr. Banks), an aspiring yet underachieving author and wine enthusiast. Miles is divorced and has not gotten over it, but he rema...Read the entire review

The MovieConsidered by many to be the best work Brooks has ever done, Young Frankenstein is a brilliant parody for a number of reasons, but three stand out. One, Gene Wilder gives one of the best comedic performances ever recorded on film, the perfect part to showcase his ability to shift gears from quiet to manic. Two, the subject being parodied is obviously loved by the parodist, and that love enhances the laughs by treating them with respect. Fi...Read the entire review

Content: From Jeff Eastin, the creator of White Collar, comes a series based off true events, a bit more of a grittier take on the aforementioned show. Graceland is your typical run of the mill formulaic cop drama on TV. The series, however, has a bit of a unique concept. Graceland's name is actually taken from a beach house in Los Angeles, where it's a base of operations for various FBI, DEA, and undercover agents. The series follows several of these agents as they try to solve various cases and uncover mysteries.

The series starts off introducing us to our lead protagonist, newly graduated FBI agent Mike Warren (played by Aaron Tveit) whom is assigned to the undercover house, known as Graceland, when a DEA agent, Donnie Banks, ends up getting shot after unintentionally revealing his identity during an undercover mission. Upon his arrival, Mike meets his new training...Read the entire review

It's hard to undervalue The Full Monty's importance in revitalizing English cinema in the 90s, especially as far as its worldwide acclaim was concerned. 90s British cinema was already going through a bit of a renaissance with the worldwide critical and box-office successes of harsh and brutal dramas like The Crying Game and Trainspotting.

The Full Monty offered relatively lighter fare while still being honest to the plights of its unemployed working class characters, practically creating an entire sub-genre that's popular even today, 17 years after the film's release.

The Full Monty formula takes an impoverished British locale, usually underrepresented in British TV or cinema, full of conservative and patriarchal characters,...Read the entire review

The Other Woman is a comedy from directorNickCassavetes (The Notebook, My Sister's Keeper) and firsttime screenwriterMelissa Stack. Released in April, the film was a huge commercialbox-officesuccess despite mostly mixed and negative reviews. It's one of thebreakoutcomedies of the entire year and is a film which continues to show thestar appealCameron Diaz and Leslie Mann hold. &nbsp;

The film stars Cameron Diaz as a successfulattorney workingin New York named Carly Whitten, who is in a relationship with thebusinesssavvy (or seemingly so...) Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Yet thesunnyromancing between them is interrupted when she discovers that he ismarried toanother wom...Read the entire review

Screenshots were taken from the included DVD edition and do not represent the quality of the Blu-ray.

The first Rio is a colorful, lightweight and not altogether joyless string of pop culture references and celebrity voice talent. This follow-up is more of the same, but I had little patience with round two. Spix's macaws Blu and Jewel, voiced by Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway, respectively, live in Rio de Janeiro with their three kids. When Blu's former owner, Linda (Leslie Mann), and her husband, Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro), discover spix's macaw feathers in the Amazon, Blu, Jewel and company decide to join the humans in hopes of finding o...Read the entire review

Please Note: The stills used here are taken from promotional materials and other sources, not the Blu-ray edition under review.

Though it came out in 2001, Kissing Jessica Stein seems to most strongly fit into the post-Swingers 1990s, when artists and performers outside of the Hollywood scene stopped waiting for someone to create a project that fit their particular quirks and skills and set out to make it themselves.

The pedigree of the creative forces that arrived to the FX show The Bridge was certainly an impressive one. The show runners came from two already established and popular shows with Meredith Stiehm (Homeland) and Elwood Reid, who Stiehm worked with on the show Cold Case, and one of its stars was an Oscar nominee. Therefore, with such an interesting cast, it was left to the concept of the show to fulfill its half of the bargain.

The show is based on the Danish/Swedish show of the same name, which starts with finding a body on the border of Denmark and Sweden, and the investigation which follows. Rather than adapt the Scandinavian climate to a show where the border was the United States and Canada, Stiehm and Reid decided to set the show along the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S...Read the entire review

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a comedy-dramafromwriter/director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Life AquaticWith SteveZissou). It is Anderson's 8th feature film and is a British/Germanco-production. The story takes place within and around the hotel andoccurswithin a fictional place known as the Republic of Zubrowka (itself ametaphorical state representing Germany before WWII), where poverty isrampantdespite the frivolities of wealthy attendees of The Grand Budapest. &nbsp;

There are ways in which The Grand BudapestHotel isWes Anderson's most accomplished film to date: the art direction, thestylishcinematography, and the elaborate set-pieces and design elements area...Read the entire review

Note: Before we get started, I'd like to say, I don't know if I'm using appropriate terms for describing the Special Olympians in this film, but I tried to avoid the obviously insulting ones (except for the Tropic Thunder reference in the opening section and any quotes from the film.) I'm not defending any mistakes I make. I'm just trying to save you an email by letting you know I'm well aware that there's probably a reference in here that will offend someone. But thanks for reading.

In 10 Words or LessJohnny Knoxville goes "full retard" in a sweet comedy

Eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin'! We're gonna do what they say can't be done!

[click on the thumbnail to enlarge]

Well, I guess it's more like northbound and up. See, the team at Wells Racing is about to unleash th...Read the entire review
]]> Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (Blu-ray)Blu-rayhttp://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=64597
Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:16 PDTHighly Recommended

In 10 Words or LessThe revamped classic shows the beauty of science

Reviewer's Bias*Loves: The idea of science, gorgeous nature photographyLikes: Neil deGrasse TysonDislikes: Feelings of insignificance and mortality brought on by learning about the universeHates: How unscientific my mind is, anti-science politics and philosophy

The ShowWhen I first went to college, I was an athletic training major, after spending plenty of time injured as a football and wrestling player in high school. However, after struggling through human anatomy and physiology and kinesiology, it became clear to me that the sciences were not my strong point, and so I made the switch to journalism, which has worked out well fo...Read the entire review

Adapted from a novel by Zoe Heller, Notes on a Scandal is a film that might sound unremarkable if the story were described, but is for the most part gripping to watch. It features a premise that could go a number of conventional ways, musing about issues raised by a number of its topics, but Heller (as well as screenwriter Patrick Marber and director Richard Eyre) resist, remaining rooted in character. Once the film's inciting incident has occurred, it almost becomes unimportant, because the focus is not the incident itself, but how the characters react to that incident based on their perspective of it (or lack of one). Each character pushes or pulls back in a way that suits their own needs, yet they are all linked by knowledge, and the conflict becomes the logical likelihood that one of them will eventually pull hard enough toward their own ends to bring all of them down.

The folks at 20th Century Fox would like you to know they're sorry. They know the last two full X-Men movies were pretty terrible, and so now they've made a full-length apology. X-Men: Days of Future Past is their attempt to undo all the damage done by X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class--in a sense quite literally. Not only did they lure back original director Bryan Singer, but they mashed together the timelines of the two movies he didn't make so Singer could wish them away to the cornfield. The new sequel is de-Ratnerized and mostly un-Vaughned.